I made a box by cutting off a segment of triple paper mache frame. I had already dismantled it partially by making another frame - so thought I might as well finish the job. The cut end was easily sealed with a piece of cardboard and then I got to work decorating! First thing was to stick all the leaves in place.

Then I painted everything with Decoart Gesso. I then painted the box in Decoart media Titan Buff acrylic paint.

I then painted the leaves in a combination of Autumn colours - I used

Pyrrole Orange

Naphthol Red Light

Quinacridone Gold

Primary Yellow

Cadmium Orange Hue

Green Gold

Once these were dry I applied a layer of Crackle glaze. Then when that had dried I covered everything with Raw Umber Antiquing Cream. I wiped this away with a baby wipe and applied a layer of Ultra Matte Varnish

I also wiped some Treasure Gold over the sides of the frame

I used White Fire Treasure Gold over the leaves. Just randomly wiping them lightly with the gold paste.

I used Idea-ology Alpha Parts letters to spell out the word 'Autumn' and used the Treasure Gold to colour just the tops of the letters, leaving them black underneath.

I covered the center of the frame with a page from a French dictionary

I filled the frame with a pine cone, piece of bark, twig and brown cheesecloth.

I added two of the ferns that had been painted with Decoart Burnt Umber paint

...and there is my finished Autumn Frame...

Hope you like it!

Why not join in Julia''s challenge this month Shades Of Autumn- You could be the lucky randomly selected winner who will win a $25 voucher to spend at Creative Embellishments

Friday, September 11, 2015

Julia here to introduce you to our amazing Guest Designer. This lady is one of those all round creatives who can work in so many different styles and mediums and in addition, she thinks outside the box and comes up with art that I am in awe of. Who am I talking about? The wonderful lady from 'down under':

Julie was with me on my first ever design team and I remember well seeing her gorgeous creations using fabric, yarn, paint, ink. . . . . . . you name it, she can do it!. . . . . . and wishing I'd come up with the idea myself! If you've never visited Julie and seen her work, please click on one of the links and prepare for a treat. I'm so pleased you agreed to be my guest designer Julie!

Hello I'm Julie Short and I'm delighted to be here.

As the northern hemisphere heads towards Autumn, here in Australia we head into Spring.

I live in a subtropical area so there are no coloured Autumn leaves and trees here.

Instead there are a wonderful few months when the light is golden and the Earth takes time to flourish and to breathe.

That's what I want to share with you.

After the wild storms of summer we have a lot of leaf litter which takes on a golden glow.

To get that feeling I used this process.

I
use A3 Manilla Folder sheets as desk protectors and when they are messy
and full of colour and drips and drops of product they become the base
for my art. Onto the base above I slathered modelling paste and roughly
used a knife to make leaf shapes. I also squirted clear gesso,
experimentally, around the leaves.

As this was drying I
took a stick and scraped out veins and edges. I knew this was going to
have a lot of product added to it so I needed a stable surface. The
covers off a wallpaper sample book were the perfect size and weight.

After
firmly gluing the backing and the folder together I mixed colour into
gel medium and slathered this around the leaf shapes. I was thinking
forest floors with thick crunchy layers of leaves.

I left this to dry overnight. Then I got out sprays and acrylic paint to start colouring the leaves.

As I needed to, I wiped back into the leaves with a damp sponge to move the colours and to blend where I needed to.

You can see the texture and the many shades that I wanted on my leaf piece.

To finish off I used a lot of Treasure Gold shades and Pearl Pens to emphasise the leaf veins.

I let this dry and polished with a soft cloth.

In
Autumn here, we actually have a riot of flowers, shrubs and trees that
bloom and delight. They seem to sulk during the rather trying Summers,
we can have. We stay inside, venturing out early in the morning and late
in the afternoons. The plants slow their growth right down.

Inspired by Julia's theme I created a second piece.

There's even more texture on this piece as I initially added a lot of seed beads into the modelling paste.

Layering Pearl Pens and Gel Medium over and around the flowers worked as both a glue and a sealer.

I was after shine and a little sparkle too!

Finally I framed both pieces in a shadow box style, shallow frame.

Even
though there is not an Autumn leaf to be found here, Autumn is a
wonderfully golden time of the year. It's the perfect time to holiday
and to visit all areas of Australia.

You'll find me busy dipping and diving into all sorts of artistic explorations here all the time.

I teach classes and workshops, run a studio store and have an online store too as Time To Create.

Making time to create, soothes my soul and nourishes my spirit.

Julie

Wow Julie!! These are both beautiful pieces and it's wonderful to see your interpretation of the Shades Of Autumn theme from such a different climate to mine here in UK. As I predicted, you have truly inspired and I dare anyone to say that they don't feel like rushing off to create after seeing your stunning art work. The colours, layers and textures are right up my street and despite living in your climate, many of the colours used are reflected elsewhere in the world where Autumn/Fall does happen. If I had to choose a favourite from both of these pieces it would be the flowers but only because I'm flower mad!! Thank you so much for joining us here today and sharing your amazing creativity. Once again, I am enthralled and in awe, not just of your finished pieces but of your process too. Thank you too, for agreeing to be my choice of Guest Designer.

So, if you haven't joined my challenge yet this month, what better time is there to start creating after seeing this feast for the eyes! You can find all the details here.

Friday, September 4, 2015

Today we are so proud to present to you the winner of our Mexico Moods Challenge which ran over July and August.Thank you to all who entered! We had amazing entries to this challenge and we were so impressed by them....remember every entrant gets a $2 voucher to spend on Stampington e-images!

So before we announce who was the winner and Top 3, lets discuss the prize winners...

We had two Sponsors who kindly offered prizes for the summer challenge -

The first was Stampington who are giving one lucky winner $20 to spend on e-images!

Can both winners please email us at via the email on the side bar so we can arrange delivery of your prizes

Now onto our winner and Top 3....We had so many amazing entries this summer and it was really difficult for the team to narrow it down to a winner and Top 3 - but eventually we did it and here is our winner...

"Wow! So much detail, so much energy and colour in these pages, love them""These pages are like a fiesta!! Love the different melding of images, too" "I also love the colorful bright and shining art journal, a lot of
stencils and graphics, a crazy cheerful page, it simply makes good mood" "This made me laugh! The depth of colour and the patterns were mad, but it all worked beautifully on the page"

Well done Niti! Congratulations on being the winner of our Mexico Moods challenge!

And in no particular order here are our amazing Top 3and what the OCC DT loved about each creation

"I love 3D art, and this mini shrine is amazing- love those wings" "I love the recycle idea and the way to work in another creative art - beautiful mixture from stamps, cut outs and embossing structures""Gorgeous altered can...love whole
idea, Frida`s stamp and all embellishments"

"It makes me happy to see, when people grab brush and paints""So bright and cheerful" "Love, love, love those colours and
idea itself...drawing is beautiful""What a bright, beautiful creation! This was so Mexican and used lots of details from the mood board"

"What a great sentiment! The colours and background designs complement the birdie wonderfully""Love the bright colors and overall joyfulness of these pages" "Love the little birdie and his tail, colours
and quote"

Thanks to everyone who entered the challenge - we loved all the entries we had and wish we could have featured more! Well done to each person who joined in over the summer!

Remember there is a new challenge at OCC...Julia's 'Shades of Autumn' challenge which runs until 28th September...get those autumn colours out and come and join us!

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Morning everyone. Julia here as challenge host to bring you our new challenge for September.

Before we get to the new challenge, it is my absolute pleasure to introduce you to our latest DT member. She's the flower girl extraordinaire. the mistress of the scrapbook page and so much more on top of that:

Please welcome the wonderfully talented Jennie Atkinson from Live The Dream!

So looking forward to working with this creative lady again.

Now, let's hear some information about our new challenge: firstly, we are generously sponsored this month by Creative Embellishments:

For one lucky randomly generated winner, Creative Embellishments are providing a $25 voucher which can be used to make purchases in their wonderful online web shop. Wow!

So, what would we like you to do this month? We'd like you to be inspired by:

'Shades of Autumn'.

I love the colours of autumn. Those beautifully dramatic reds, golds, yellows, browns, greens and all shades in between. Your challenge this month is to take some inspiration from the colours in the image provided and make an autumnal inspired project.

I am always captivated by the trees as they change colour during autumn. The colours are so vivid and striking, it's hard to believe they are slowly fading and disappearing ready for winter. I've transferred some stamped and coloured leaf images onto fabric and decorated a mirror.

He travels with his girlfriend to one of the beautiful bridges in October.

Do you know what the two plan???

It's a little wooden box in mixed media style and I used a transfer technique in combination with spray inks in brown tones and stencils (fallen chestnut leaves). I think it's masculine and autumnal too.

Taking colour inspiration from the rich fall palette - I used regular items from what is normally my paper crafting toolbox as soap crafting implements for some soap crafting. Things like acrylic stamps to create the embossed designs, soap paint from shimmer powder to hand paint its detail, Lino/wood engravers, shapers, cutting dies and cookie cutters to make the embedded elements....Crafty tools are so repurposeable!

I am a huge fan of Autumn, a walk in the woods with my family admiring the colours of the leaves is something to look forward to before the dark days of Winter. One of my favourite dies is Tim's Tattered Leaves with the embossing folder. I added hints of gold for the sun on the leaves and hessian ribbon for the textures!

I was inspired by the Autumn colours to make this little wall hanging, however, the gesso toned down the colours so they are probably more reminiscent of a misty Autumn day!

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Wow!! I don't think you can fail to be inspired by these gorgeous creations! For full details of how each designer made her project, just click on the name above the photographs and you will be taken to their blogs.

You really must play with us this month and give yourself a chance to win that fabulous prize. In addition, don't forget to pop back on the 4th September to see who the winners of our Mexico Moods challenge will be.

I really can't wait to see what you create for my challenge! Just remember to use the colours in the photograph at the top of the post for your inspiration and produce an autumnal style project.